Go now, ingenuous Youth! -- The trying hour Is come: The World demands that thou shouldst go To active life: There titles, wealth and power May all be purchas'd -- Yet I joy to know Thou wilt not pay their price. The base controul Of petty despots in their pedant reign Already hast thou felt; -- and high disdain Of Tyrants is imprinted on thy soul[.] -- Not, where mistaken Glory, in the field Rears her red banner, be thou ever found; But, against proud Oppression raise the shield Of Patriot daring -- So shalt thou renown'd For the best virtues live; or that denied May'st die, as Hampden or as Sydney died! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...GHOSTS OF THE OLD YEAR by JAMES WELDON JOHNSON HOMAGE TO SEXTUS PROPERTIUS: 11 by EZRA POUND HUMAN LIFE by AUBREY THOMAS DE VERE LET THE LIGHT ENTER (THE DYING WORDS OF GOETHE) by FRANCES ELLEN WATKINS HARPER STEVENSON'S BIRTHDAY by KATHERINE WISE MILLER THE PROUD MISS MACBRIDE; A LEGEND OF GOTHAM by JOHN GODFREY SAXE |